Firms may run English roads

Labour's Maria Eagle, the Shadow Transport Secretary, says the Prime Minister's announcement on the UK's roads and infrastructure is misleading.

"The Prime Minister's double-speak gives the impression that his privatisation plans will only see tolls applied to new roads", she says.

"Yet he has redefined new roads to include anything that adds capacity including road widening and junction improvements.

"Motorists will rightly consider that to be a clear plan for charging for existing roads."

She adds: "These plans are likely to simply drive traffic onto local roads, increase congestion and emissions while yet again setting back efforts to improve safety."

• £2.5 billion - The amount of money companies could save if travel times were reduced by just five per cent
• 123 million - The number of working hours lost per year due to traffic delays
• 16 - The number of UK cities in the top 50 most gridlocked places in Europe

• 3 - London is the third most congested city in Europe - finishing behind Brussels (1st) and Warsaw (2nd)
• 35% - The percentage of London roads that regularly face traffic jams
• 27 minutes - The length of time a motorist is, on average, delayed by at least once a month

Maria Eagle, Shadow Secretary of State for Transport has said that the privatisation of the railways has proved that such schemes do not give the tax-payer value for money.